First published 2025
Sage climbs aboard Bus 315 with her sister, expecting nothing more than the usual trip home from school. Within hours, she finds herself buried twenty feet underground in a shipping container with nine other children and their bus driver, Jessa. The kidnappers executed their plan in broad daylight, making ten children vanish without a trace. Jessa battles crushing guilt as she watches over the trapped kids. Three years ago, she failed to save her own daughter. Now she faces the same nightmare with ten young lives depending on her. The captors demand ransom money and promise release, but the container's air supply dwindles with each breath. Sage loses hope that rescue will arrive in time. Underground in the suffocating darkness, Jessa must overcome her past failures and find a way to outsmart their captors before the oxygen runs out and she loses another child.
Genres: drama, suspense, crime, thriller, psychological-thriller, mystery-thriller
Vibes: claustrophobic, dark, emotionally-charged, fast-paced, intense, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, race-against-time, redemption-arc, trauma-recovery
Setting: Bus 315, shipping container
Period: contemporary
384 pages · Paperback · Pan Publishing
Content warnings: child-abuse, death, kidnapping